Blogs • The President 2008
What to look for in a Hall of Residence
Posted by Tom Kuperus on Monday, September 15, 2008
/ 0 Comments
If your in year 13 or you've been away on a gap year and are planning to come down to Dunedin to study in 2009 there's no doubt you will have considered staying in a Residential College. Having been down here for two years now, I've got to know a bit about each of them, and picked up on some of their less obvious strengths and weaknesses. Although they may appear very similar in the University of Otago publications the reality is there are some pretty significant differences you may not realise until you're on the inside and well into your first year - by then it'll be too late if you made the wrong decision!
In terms of selecting a College I'd be foolish to try and tell you where to go or to pretend there is a best and worst College, but I can provide you with an honest run down on some of my thoughts and you may find that helpful. Read up as much as you can on them, talk to as many people as possible, and take your time with the decision - it's a pretty important one.
One of the things you should consider is the size of the Hall. The advantage of a big hall is you can keep to yourself and remain quite anonymous if you wish, or conversely you have the opportunity to really put your name out and make friends with a huge number of people. On the other hand a smaller hall (<250 people) will have more of a family feel, you'll soon learn every body's name and they'll know yours. The value of this shouldn't be underestimated, it's great being able to have a proper conversation with anyone who walks in the door. You may be concerned that there will be fewer opportunities or facilities in a smaller Hall but I don't believe this to be true, using Selwyn as an example, we have as many tutorials as the other halls (if not more), we have far more social activities than any other and our facilities are on an equal par in virtually every respect.
Another important factor you may wish to consider is the location of the hall. In Dunedin everybody walks everywhere, there's very little parking around campus and most things are pretty close anyway. That said if you aren't someone who wants to spend 20 or 30 minutes walking to class each morning (especially if you're considering first year health sciences where you'll probably have 8am lectures!) then you probably want to think more about the closer halls. Selwyn, Unicol and St Margarets all sit on Campus, Cumberland, Studholme, Hayward, Carrington, Arana and CityCol are all within a reasonable 5 minute walk but the likes of Aquinas Salmond and Knox are a little further afield.
There is a lot of variation in the atmosphere of the halls too, which is particularly hard to appreciate when you're reading up in the guides. St. Margarets is the self-confessed quieter hall, generally it's students are very diligent and academically minded. If you're looking for somewhere that will offer you the best support with your studies this may well the the choice for you but at the same time that quieter approach may not work for you if your looking forward to the occasional loud night of celebration. CityCol has a different room arrangement to other halls where they are set up in pods in contrast to the more common corridor approach in nearly every other College. I've heard this tends to create fairly tight, but small social groups, but has the advantage of being similar to a flat easing the transition from the hall to independent accommodation later on. Carrington has a very tidy and relaxed feel to it, and from my limited experiences there it seems they tend to pick up a combination of the rugby jocks and some very hard workers. To me Studholme, Salmond, Cumberland and Hayward are very similar in terms of their set up and atmosphere, each attracts a range of typical Otago University students from around the country. While all the friends I have had go through these halls have had a great time it would seem that they are pretty focused on providing the basic requirements of a hall at a good price and are aimed at pleasing as many different groups of student as possible.
Unicol and Arana are easily the biggest two, and with that the residents get a real feel of being part of the University. While both have new and modern facilities Arana is much more popular, and I understand it attracts the most applicants of any hall every year. My mum went there and she turned out ok so it can't be too bad!
Selwyn and Knox (and St. Margarets to a degree) are built around very strong traditions consistent with the early origins of these establishments. This has a significant impact on the way the hall is run, and how much influence the College has on your personal development and education. These are the halls that people tend to return to for a second year, and they have the most active students' associations. The traditions won't suit everyone, but if you really want to be a part of a College where you are going to put a lot in, but become part of something that is more than just a roof over your head and 3 meals a day then these are probably a good choice. These halls have been pretty popular in recent years and your guaranteed to be in good company with clever and successful students.
It's important to think about the way the hall selection process works when you are filling out the application form. The halls are all given the applications from the people who put their hall as the first choice. they then make offers to enough students to fill the College, and pass the remaining forms back to the accommodation office who then pass them onto the next hall on your list that isn't already full. If you don't get into your first choice hall and your second and third choices are some of the more popular ones you may well find you end up getting into your 4th or 5th choice . While I'm not able to say which halls will be the most popular ones for this exercise it would be wise to ask around.
Finally don't worry about what your friends are doing, once you get down here you'll make a whole new group, and it can be good to know people in other halls so you get to meet even more people!
If you have any questions or points about things I haven't discussed here, particularly about Selwyn College from a students perspective, feel free to email me at kupth222@student.otago.ac.nz or alternatively leave a comment on this page and I'll let you know more.
Tom
In terms of selecting a College I'd be foolish to try and tell you where to go or to pretend there is a best and worst College, but I can provide you with an honest run down on some of my thoughts and you may find that helpful. Read up as much as you can on them, talk to as many people as possible, and take your time with the decision - it's a pretty important one.
One of the things you should consider is the size of the Hall. The advantage of a big hall is you can keep to yourself and remain quite anonymous if you wish, or conversely you have the opportunity to really put your name out and make friends with a huge number of people. On the other hand a smaller hall (<250 people) will have more of a family feel, you'll soon learn every body's name and they'll know yours. The value of this shouldn't be underestimated, it's great being able to have a proper conversation with anyone who walks in the door. You may be concerned that there will be fewer opportunities or facilities in a smaller Hall but I don't believe this to be true, using Selwyn as an example, we have as many tutorials as the other halls (if not more), we have far more social activities than any other and our facilities are on an equal par in virtually every respect.
Another important factor you may wish to consider is the location of the hall. In Dunedin everybody walks everywhere, there's very little parking around campus and most things are pretty close anyway. That said if you aren't someone who wants to spend 20 or 30 minutes walking to class each morning (especially if you're considering first year health sciences where you'll probably have 8am lectures!) then you probably want to think more about the closer halls. Selwyn, Unicol and St Margarets all sit on Campus, Cumberland, Studholme, Hayward, Carrington, Arana and CityCol are all within a reasonable 5 minute walk but the likes of Aquinas Salmond and Knox are a little further afield.
There is a lot of variation in the atmosphere of the halls too, which is particularly hard to appreciate when you're reading up in the guides. St. Margarets is the self-confessed quieter hall, generally it's students are very diligent and academically minded. If you're looking for somewhere that will offer you the best support with your studies this may well the the choice for you but at the same time that quieter approach may not work for you if your looking forward to the occasional loud night of celebration. CityCol has a different room arrangement to other halls where they are set up in pods in contrast to the more common corridor approach in nearly every other College. I've heard this tends to create fairly tight, but small social groups, but has the advantage of being similar to a flat easing the transition from the hall to independent accommodation later on. Carrington has a very tidy and relaxed feel to it, and from my limited experiences there it seems they tend to pick up a combination of the rugby jocks and some very hard workers. To me Studholme, Salmond, Cumberland and Hayward are very similar in terms of their set up and atmosphere, each attracts a range of typical Otago University students from around the country. While all the friends I have had go through these halls have had a great time it would seem that they are pretty focused on providing the basic requirements of a hall at a good price and are aimed at pleasing as many different groups of student as possible.
Unicol and Arana are easily the biggest two, and with that the residents get a real feel of being part of the University. While both have new and modern facilities Arana is much more popular, and I understand it attracts the most applicants of any hall every year. My mum went there and she turned out ok so it can't be too bad!
Selwyn and Knox (and St. Margarets to a degree) are built around very strong traditions consistent with the early origins of these establishments. This has a significant impact on the way the hall is run, and how much influence the College has on your personal development and education. These are the halls that people tend to return to for a second year, and they have the most active students' associations. The traditions won't suit everyone, but if you really want to be a part of a College where you are going to put a lot in, but become part of something that is more than just a roof over your head and 3 meals a day then these are probably a good choice. These halls have been pretty popular in recent years and your guaranteed to be in good company with clever and successful students.
It's important to think about the way the hall selection process works when you are filling out the application form. The halls are all given the applications from the people who put their hall as the first choice. they then make offers to enough students to fill the College, and pass the remaining forms back to the accommodation office who then pass them onto the next hall on your list that isn't already full. If you don't get into your first choice hall and your second and third choices are some of the more popular ones you may well find you end up getting into your 4th or 5th choice . While I'm not able to say which halls will be the most popular ones for this exercise it would be wise to ask around.
Finally don't worry about what your friends are doing, once you get down here you'll make a whole new group, and it can be good to know people in other halls so you get to meet even more people!
If you have any questions or points about things I haven't discussed here, particularly about Selwyn College from a students perspective, feel free to email me at kupth222@student.otago.ac.nz or alternatively leave a comment on this page and I'll let you know more.
Tom